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Paradise and explosions: Just Cause 2 at E3

Rico Rodriguez is back, and in Just Cause 2 players are going to have a blast …

Just Cause was one of those games that people seemed to either love or hate when it was first released. On one hand, the game featured one of the largest open-world environments we had ever seen and some impressive graphics, but some of the builds were buggy and many of the missions were rather repetitive and dull. At E3, Avalanche Studios was showing off the latest build of the game for the press, and it looks like many of the flaws in the first title have been dramatically improved upon.

The game once again stars Rico Rodriguez, who is reluctantly dragged back into action by The Agency in order to track down his former mentor, a man who has suddenly gone AWOL with a ton of Agency money and intel. The game occurs on the fictional island of Panau, the economy of which seems to be torn between high-end resort tourism and terrorist-based drug trafficking; as a result, Rodriguez is going to take on a slew of enemies on his own, but he'll have some pretty cool gear to help with his quest. The two items that players will be able to use infinitely are Rodriguez's parachute and grappling hook.

The grappling hook functions in much the same way that it did in the original Tenchu games, attaching to any surface and pulling Rodriguez towards the object in question at breakneck speeds. Combine this with the gliding ability of his parachute, and Rodriguez can practically fly wherever he wants.

This is only one of the ways that Avalanche Studios has managed to create a game that is incredibly open-ended and capable of being played in more ways than one might imagine. It's amazing how, thanks to the grappling hook, the gameplay is so adaptable; this is what Bionic Commando could have been like had it been done right.

The two missions we were shown could be played in a number of ways: the first required Rodriguez to blow up an enemy encampment, while the second involved saving an informant from hostile agents. During the first part, we got to see how players could engage in standard run-and-gun gameplay, or they could freely glide around the base and reign death down from above, or combine the two combat styles.

The second part involved taking a helicopter to a high-rise hotel, hanging from the chopper's skids and shooting enemies, and then riding on the top of the informant's car to defend him during a high-speed chase. The last part includes leaping from vehicle to vehicle, shooting out tires (which causes the cars to flip spectacularly), and using the grappling hook to drag your opponents.

Of course, the game's graphics look spectacular as well: character models were impressively detailed, but the island of Panau looked great. At the beginning of the demo, we were given a panoramic view of the island, and the draw distance showcased much of the game's roughly 400 square miles of terrain, all of which looked extremely lush.

At the same time, some of the game's voice acting was extremely cheesy, something that probably won't be improved before the game is released for PS3/360/PC next year. In spite of that, it looks like Just Cause 2 will be a great action title, thanks in large part to its open-ended and fast-paced gameplay.